The SIF backs cross-campus projects — designed and led by UAB faculty and staff — that align with the university’s strategic plan, Forging Ahead. Funded projects this year focus on eSports, a rapid innovation pipeline for clinical/research ideas, and a makerspace for research and education in arts, sciences and engineering.

Hubbard, 20, of Tuscaloosa, Alabama, also won the Miss Congeniality and Talent awards, winning $2,800 in scholarships.

UAB neuroscientist Kauê Machado Costa, Ph.D., assistant professor in the Department of Psychology, received a Parkinson's Foundation grant to test an intriguing hypothesis: The cognitive deficits now known to occur in the early years of Parkinson's disease may be a clue that learning-oriented dopamine circuits shift gears to cover for their movement-focused cousins. If Costa’s...